Turkey’s energy-hub plans at risk

The coup has not affected oil and gas flows, but the purge and new instability will expose the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline to more danger and hurt Ankara’s broader import-export project

TURKEY has spent the past decade pushing its claim to be the main bridge between East and West and a link between the northern and southern worlds. It has had some success: Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, for example, struggles to cope each day with tens of thousands of passengers transiting to destinations across four continents, with Turkish Airlines serving more cities than any other carrier. The country’s ambitions in energy are similar. Turkey sits on the doorstep of major producers of oil and natural gas. Logic dictates that energy-hungry Europe should meet a large part of its gas needs via a Turkish hub. But hubs – for energy as much as air travel – need stability and security, and the fa